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Old 05-21-10 | 04:18 AM
  #27  
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azesty
Hot in China
 
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 961
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From: China

Bikes: Giant Lava

Riding in China lots of people want to practice their only word of English, "Hello".

I generally respond in Chinese, using a lower but still significant percentage of my Chinese.

If I go out of the city to one of the satellite cities, I get a lot more. Where I live, just inside the 2nd ring road (there are 4), I dont get that much, though the country folk come up to the big city do stare on occasion.

There are very few lycra clad riders here, but those with nice bikes will often nod at me, and I respond. We both seem to get a kick out of that.

I often overtake electric scooters, so I dont really see their faces. Lots of petrol bikes go past me, and they often smile at me, especially if I have a fire under my tail and am going quickly. We are all denizens of the fairly cosmoplitan bike lanes here, though the petrol bikes are more often found between us and the cages. They form sort of a lightly polluting buffer zone. Every now and then I might draft a slower one at 40 - 45 kmph, the rider often looks over their shoulder at me and smiles, sometimes with a thumbs up. They do break the wind so very well with their size. Very few fast moving bicycles on my commute.

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